The Gold King Mine Spill and the Orange Animas
Near Durango, Colorado
On the fifth of August, two thousand fifteen, a crew working for the United States Environmental Protection Agency was attempting to assess conditions at the abandoned Gold King Mine above Silverton, north of Durango. The mine had been leaking contaminated water for years, and the agency had identified it as needing urgent attention. While excavating the mine entrance to drain water pooled behind a debris plug, the crew triggered a blowout.
Three million gallons of acidic, metal-laden water poured into Cement Creek, a tributary of the Animas River, within hours. The water carried arsenic, cadmium, lead, aluminum, and copper. It turned the Animas River a vivid orange, the color of rust, visible from the riverbanks in downtown Durango.
The plume swept south through town and continued into New Mexico and eventually reached the Colorado River system. Durango and communities downstream shut off their river intakes. The Navajo Nation, whose agricultural communities draw from the San Juan River into which the Animas flows, declared a state of emergency.
The Environmental Protection Agency, the same agency whose crew triggered the spill, spent years negotiating liability and cleanup. The orange river that ran through Durango in the summer of two thousand fifteen reminded the town that the mining era's consequences are not historical. They are still moving through the watershed.
